Caryl Lewis Wins Wales Book of the Year Award 2023

Drift by Caryl Lewis has been named the overall winner of the English language Wales Book of the Year Award 2023 at a ceremony in Tramshed, Cardiff.

Drift by Caryl Lewis has been announced as the winner of the overall Wales Book of the Year Award 2023 in a live ceremony in Cardiff, while Pridd by Llŷr Titus has secured the Wales Book of the Year 2023 in Welsh. Lewis has already won the Welsh-language Wales Book of the Year Award twice in the past – for Martha, Jac, a Sianco in 2005 and Y Bwthyn in 2016 (both published by Y Lolfa) – making her the first writer to have won the Wales Book of the Year Award in both languages.

The Wales Book of the Year Award is an annual prize hosted by Literature Wales to celebrate literary talent from Wales across many genres and in both English and Welsh.

Prizes were awarded across four categories in each language – Poetry, Fiction, Creative Non-fiction and Children and Young People. In addition, the Wales Arts Review’s People’s Choice Award and Golwg360’s Barn y Bobl Award winners were announced, revealing which books were the favourites among the public.

Each category winner received a prize of £1,000 and the main winners received an additional £3,000. Both the category winners and main winners also received an iconic Wales Book of the Year Award trophy, designed by artist and blacksmith Angharad Pearce Jones. Wales Arts Review’s People’s Choice Award winner received a ceramic piece by Cardiff-based artist Lisa Marie Tann from her Ogmore Series, and the Golwg360 Barn y Bobl Award winner received a piece of art by Mary Bath, a final year Illustration student from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

An independent panel of judges is appointed to read, discuss and select a shortlist every year. This year’s English-language judging panel included BAFTA-winning actress and writer Emily Burnett; author and teacher Emma Smith-Barton; poet and editor Kristian Evans and former Wales Book of the Year category winner, writer  Mike Parker.

The full list of English-language winners:

Children and Young People

When the War Came Home (Bloomsbury Children’s Book) by Lesley Parr

Creative Non-Fiction

And…A Memoir of My Mother (Black Bee Books) by Isabel Adonis

Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award

Drift (Doubleday) by Caryl Lewis

Poetry

As If to Sing (Seren Books) by Paul Henry

Wales Arts Review People’s Choice Award

The Last Firefox (Penguin Random House) by Lee Newberry

Overall Winner of the Wales Book of the Year Award 2023